Steffany,
Typically, the stimulus associated with a Must Be True question does not contain an argument. This is not a rule - a Must Be True question could be asked about a stimulus that did contain an argument - but is rather just a general pattern. It is not surprising that a stimulus would just be a set of facts for a Must Be True question. The question asks you to trust the information in the stimulus and to identify something that follows from the facts in the stimulus without any change or addition. Whether the facts are presented as leading to a conclusion or just presented as a set of facts, a Must Be True question will ask you to do the same thing.
Compare a Must Be True question to some other question types. If a stimulus contains an argument, a question could ask any of the following:
- What makes the argument worse? (Weaken)
- What makes the argument better? (Strengthen)
- What mistake did the argument make? (Flaw in the Reasoning)
- What was the argument trying to prove? (Main Point)
- How did the author attempt to make his/her point? (Method of Reasoning)
Because a Must Be True question won't ask any of these things, the stimulus doesn't need to be an argument for a Must Be True question, but it's not as if it can't be. It just doesn't matter either way. For any of the question types I just listed, the stimulus
has to be an argument, or else the question doesn't make sense.
In short, a Must Be True question doesn't need a stimulus with an argument, so the test-makers usually don't structure the stimulus as an argument. If the stimulus is an argument, your way of answering the question doesn't differ, so it's not a big deal if this general pattern has a few exceptions.
Having said all that, I would be happy to deal with any specific examples of Must Be True questions associated with stimuli that appear to contain arguments. Can you give me an example from the Type Training book?
Robert Carroll
